Maintenance notice
July 4, 2010 by Leroy Ketelaars
Filed under News & Lifestyle
Dear visitors,
Due to scheduled maintenance, the website will be unavailable between 10 and 11PM GMT + 1 (Dutch local time). You will be able to access the forums during this time, however.
We apologize for any inconvenience caused, and hope to see you all again after!
Sincerely,
the management
PS. Icon artwork by Sebastiaan de With who runs Cocoia
Edit:
It’s now 30 minutes later, and maintenance has been completed. Everything appears to be running just as smoothly as it has in the testing environment, but please contact staff immediately if you noticed anything going wonky, thanks!
ThinkTank: Microsoft Press Conference.
June 29, 2010 by Patrick Traynor
Filed under Opinion & Columns
As the E3 press conference for Microsoft the year comes to a close, and people who decided not to go to the conference or forgot to go are still punching walls over not getting a free Xbox 360 slim (Okay, maybe only I am).
Microsoft seems to have gone in the direction of the Wii Press Conference last year, trying to make a multi-media device instead of a console. They had mainly focused on the Kinect and features on Xbox Live. This isn’t necessarily bad, this is really good from a business standpoint, but many hardcore fans had shown distaste to Microsoft’s focus on Gizmos & Gadgets rather than Games and gore.
- Call of Duty: Black Ops
Somethings never change, that being war and an on schedule, Read more
Pokemon Black and White Trailer & Release Date!
June 29, 2010 by Patrick Traynor
Filed under News & Lifestyle
First of all. the new trailer:
The latest installment of the Pokemon franchise was announced in Japan a while ago:
Err, maybe not like that..
The new game series is stated to be released on September 18, in Japan and as always, no targeted release date in North America and Europe. The release date in the US and Europe are around Spring 2011 for the Nintendo DS.
Resident Evil 5 Producer Jun Takeuchi Will Not Produce a 6th Installment.
June 29, 2010 by Patrick Traynor
Filed under News & Lifestyle
After a year of Resident Evil 5, everyone has been waiting for the announcement of the next installment in the series, Resident Evil 6.
Resident Evil 5 producer Jun Takeuchi has said that Resident Evil 6 would be a, “total reboot” to the series.
Unfortunately, producer Jun Takeuchi said that he will not be involved in 6.
“I’m not involved in Resident Evil 6. There’s actually a number of things I want to do.”
“If I say it like that, it might be taken as ‘next game,’ but before reaching the step of making a game, we — Japanese developers — have a lot of things that we must do. To begin, I have a number of things I’d like to do related to Capcom as a whole.”
Looks like we have to see who will fill his spot for the next installment.
Guitar Hero 6 offically announced as ‘Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock’
June 8, 2010 by Patrick Traynor
Filed under News & Lifestyle
The sixth installment of the Guitar Hero franchise has been officially announced as ‘Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock’.
No official word from Red Octane about the set list for the new installment, but a leaked 20 song list has been announced:
‘AFI – Dancing Through Sunday
Black Sabbath – Children of the Grave
Buzzcocks – What Do I Get?
Children of Bodom – If You Want Peace… Prepare for War
Def Leppard – Pour Some Sugar on Me
Dethklok – Bloodlines
DragonForce – Fury of the Storm
Jane’s Addiction – Been Caught Stealing
Kiss – Love Gun
Megadeth – Sudden Death
Metallica & Ozzy Osbourne – Paranoid (Live)
Muse – Uprising
My Chemical Romance – I’m Not Okay (I Promise)
Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody
Rammstein – Waidmanns Heil
Silversun Pickups – There’s No Secrets This Year
Slayer – Chemical Warfare
Tesla – Modern Day Cowboy
The Cure – Fascination Street
ZZ Top – Sharp Dressed Man’
We can only sit and wait for more info from Activision when E3 is open for business.
Microsoft Changes Xbox 360 Box Art?!
June 8, 2010 by Patrick Traynor
Filed under News & Lifestyle
Microsoft has recently updated their cover art for new Xbox 360 titles.
If anyone that has pre-ordered, or even viewed the box art of Mafia II or Kane and Lynch: Dog Days, you might have noticed the updated Xbox 360 logo.
This is the old one:
And this is the new one
As you can see, Microsoft has lightened the shade of Grey on the Xbox logo, the green bar under the logo has been shortened, the circles logo has been replaced with this new ‘wave’ logo, and the Xbox Live symbol is completely gone all together.
This has not yet been officially announced by Microsoft, or has been placed on any new games as of yet. It seems to be of a possible pending design or used for certain games on the Xbox 360.
2010 Pokemon Video Game Championships kick off in Seattle, Washington
May 15, 2010 by Patrick Traynor
Filed under News & Lifestyle
The 2010 Pokemon Video Game Championship started off in Seattle, Washington last Saturday. This tournament will be in 6 different countries spanning until August, then the finals will be held Kona, Hawaii. This will be for the HeartGold and SoulSilver Pokemon versions only.
Here is the full list of cities the regional will be held:
* Saturday, May 8, 2010 – Seattle, WA
* Saturday, May 15, 2010 – San Francisco, CA
* Saturday, May 22, 2010 – Phoenix, AZ
* Saturday, May 29, 2010 – Dallas, TX
* Saturday, June 5, 2010 – Atlanta, GA
* Saturday, June 12, 2010 – Newark, NJ
* Saturday, May 29, 2010 – Birmingham, England
* Saturday, June 5, 2010 – Cologne, Germany
* Saturday, June 12, 2010 – Lyon, France
* Saturday, June 19, 2010 – Madrid, Spain
* June 25-27, 2010 – Indianapolis, IN
* August 13 – 15, 2010 – Kona, Hawaii
Look for the full list of rules and regulations here
NBA 2 Ball demo being sold on eBay starting at $300.00 USD
May 3, 2010 by Patrick Traynor
Filed under News & Lifestyle
The rare demo for the PS1 is being sold on eBay here
For those who don’t know about this game, it was given out to those who attended the 1998 NBA All Star game at Madison Square Garden in New York. An estimated 500 – 1000 copies were given out. Due to reported defective programming in the disc, poor production, and the quality of the demo (Really bad), those who received the demo tossed it out, or just lost them somewhere.
A total of two demos out of 1000 were known to remain. (One in the hands of the original programmer Paul Blagay, and another broken into two pieces in the hands of a reporter at www.game-rave.com, story here>)
A few days ago a man named Michael Muchnik had revealed that he has one of the original demos given out at the game.
“My friend did not seem to care too much about the game at the time and I was a big NBA fan and loved (and still love) sports video games, so I offered to buy it from him. I purchased it for $5 at the time.”, Michael reported.
Reports from the original programmer confirms the game as authentic.
If you would like to place a bid on this item. (Currently starting at $300.00 USD) Check out the auction and video here
Download Mechwarriors 4: Mercenaries FOR FREE!
May 3, 2010 by Patrick Traynor
Filed under News & Lifestyle
8 years after it’s initial release and bankruptcy of Fasa Studio, Mechwarriors 4: Mercenaries is being released for free on the PC over the MekTek X client, a LEGAL bittorent sort to download the full game.
This game will come with everything the original had on its release, and even more content on top of it.
So if you are fan of the original game and your game is scratched beyond belief (Like mine), you want to try it out for the first time, or you just want a free game, I suggest you download this today!
You can download the client to install the game here.
(Currently, due to the influx of people downloading it, the client is really slow. So I suggest you wait a few days, or just deal with the slow load time)
If you would like to play online with me, or any other NiSuTe Members, drop me a message.
Final Fantasy XIII’s plastic fantastic conservatism versus the raw promise of Just Cause 2
February 25, 2010 by Martijn van Best
Filed under Events, Reviews & Interviews
Imagine two games which couldn’t be more different being showcased to the game press together. Both Final Fantasy XIII, the latest installment in the long running RPG-series, and Just Cause 2, sequel to 2006 action title Just Cause by Swedish developer Avalanche Studios were playable at the Square Enix 2010 line-up event at Metropolis Cinema in Antwerp, Belgium. Final Fantasy is of course the flagship of Square Enix, while the first Just Cause was published by Eidos. Now that Square Enix owns Eidos, the Swedish franchise has found a new home in the Japanese powerhouse. It’s kind of strange to compare two games which are so remarkably different, but it was exactly that huge difference in play mechanics and control which was so compelling about the whole afternoon. Not because of the different genres, but because of what they represent: willingness to experiment (JC2) versus conservatism (FFXIII).
The event began with Adrian Arnese of Square Enix’s London office playing through several scenes of FFXIII on one of the Metropolis complex’s big movie screens. Some of these scenes were from the beginning of the game, while others were from 30/40 hours in. He showed the main characters like Lightning, Hope, Snow, Vanille and Sazh battling through different environments, all the while explaining more about the game’s storyline and how the main characters are connected by their misfortune to be chosen as a l’Cie, a sort of servant for a godlike species called fal’Cie. Environments included a kind of power plant, a city and vast grassy plains. Lots of beautiful environments, but none were as pretty as the character models themselves, especially their facial features. A lot of work has obviously gone into those.
During an opportunity to test the game first-hand we found that while the graphics might blow you away, the gameplay alone does not carry the game, at least not the opening sequence. There’s lots of repetition when it comes to battles and you don’t even get to control all team members, just the ‘leader’. (At least in this early part, let’s hope that feature isn’t carried over to the rest of the game). Combat was simplified compared to earlier Final Fantasies: health gets restored automatically and free of charge after each battle, while a potion used in combat heals the entire team. In this early scene, it was possible to turn your back to the screen and start talking to onlookers, all the while bashing the command button and still win battles. We tested this. This simplification might attract new fans but it seems like a missed opportunity to grab the player by the throat right from the start. To be fair: an RPG like this has to be played patiently. You need time to take it all in and let both the story and the gameplay unfold. A press event where you typically play for half an hour, all the while skipping story sequences doesn’t do this kind of game justice.
Just Cause 2 surprised us with it’s fun gameplay. There is a big drive to play and fool around with the controls right from the start, although the control takes getting used to. The grappling hook from the first game has been given extended functionality and is easier to operate. It’s a device which can be used not only for climbing and dragging cars out of a ditch, but also for such frivolities as tying an enemy to a gas canister and then launching him into the air, to name just one of many possibilities in this huge, free-roaming environment. A combination of grappling and base-jumping using a retractable parachute makes navigation a blast. Main character Rico Rodriguez can drive any vehicle, destroy lots of objects and grapple and base-jump his way through the landscape. Like lead game designer Peter Johanssen and community manager Mike Oldman say: “There is so much to do, you won’t be bored even if you don’t follow the missions at all.”
And that’s exactly the big difference between JC2 and FFXIII: the willingness, perhaps the need, of Avalanche to experiment with gameplay features stands in stark contrast with the conservatism of Square Enix’s own FFXIII. Final Fantasy XIII looks highly polished, with trademark superb graphics. But its character-archetypes feel very worn out. There’s the mysterious woman with a dark past, the gruff fighter who still manages to look very fashionable and the cheerful young girl who can’t decide whether she’s jailbait or just carefree. Very nice, but we’ve seen ‘em before. The gameplay is mostly conventional with a dynamic looking, but ultimately turn-based battle system that -at least in the early levels- is very restrictive. As if Square Enix is afraid players might break something in the process. On the other hand, Just Cause 2 is looking kind of rough around the edges when compared to Final Fantasy, but offers more in terms of rewarding experimental behaviour. While not offering something mind-blowingly new, it is not as bound by tradition as FFXIII. Just Cause 2 playfully combines mechanics from several action games -like Bionic Commando and Grand Theft Auto-, with the unique twist of making the grappling hook so fun and versatile, providing the player with multiple solutions to any given problem. And shouldn’t that be what great games are all about?
Whether or not JC2 stays interesting for the whole 40 hours the developers claim players will spend at it, remains to be seen. Yet it is a junior franchise ready to carve out a piece of the market for its own and therefore seems to have more raw energy than FF. Square Enix stays middle of the road in terms of new gameplay features, like so many Japanese developers tend to do. Where are the truly new ideas? RPG’s are a conservative genre by definition but there will be a time when pretty graphics alone won’t cut it.
Tom Kerkhof
freek3dinfo on 
